ST. GEORGE, Utah – A judge Monday postponed the April 23 trial involving the leader of a polygamous sect who is charged with crimes tied to the spiritual marriage of a minor and an older man.
Fifth District Judge James Shumate instead will hear arguments that day on motions to suppress evidence.
He didn’t elaborate in the two-sentence order, saying only that his decision was “due to recent information” in the case. A new trial date was not set.
Warren Jeffs, leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, is charged with rape as an accomplice for his alleged role in uniting a 14-year-old girl and her 19-year-old cousin in 2001.
His attorneys want the case moved out of southern Utah’s Washington County and relocated 270 miles north in Salt Lake County. They also want Shumate to throw out evidence seized from a Cadillac Escalade when Jeffs was arrested in August in Nevada.